What is the ruling on two brothers who are partners in the ownership of egg-laying birds agreeing that one of them will take care of them and spend on them in a given year, and take their full production, and the other will do the same in another year, knowing that they are both agreeable to this arrangement?

It is permissible for two individuals to combine their capital and labor in raising birds and selling their offspring. This is known as a "Shirkat al-Inan" (partnership based on capital and labor). The conditions for such a partnership are an agreement on the profit-sharing ratio and knowledge of each partner's capital. It is not permissible for one partner to take the output of an entire year while the other takes the output of another year, as this involves uncertainty and ignorance (gharar and jahl) which would lead to a severance of profit sharing, thus invalidating the partnership. The Islamic legal solution is for each of them to contribute capital for the expenses of the birds, and for each to undertake the work for a specific year, provided that they share the output and divide it each year according to the agreed-upon ratio.